Caps Canes Match-up
Capitals 49-14-5
Hurricanes 31-26-12
Game Time 7pm at Verizon Center (CSN-DC)
There has been a lot of movement during practice on the top three lines and it is anyone’s guess what falls out tonight. Coach Trotz said Monday that he was changing things up because of the way the Boyz played on the west coast trip. He wants to “get a little more stability” and make sure that “everyone is engaged.”
Monday he moved Jay Beagle up to the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. That forced a trickle down change with TJ Oshie slipping to the second line and Tom Wilson sliding in for Beags on the fourth.
Then on Tuesday he did it again. Same makeup for the forwards but he brought Taylor Chorney in and moved Mike Weber out of his defenseman slot. We also saw more of the Richards, Winnik, and Wilson line.
So here is what we have heading into warm-ups but don’t be surprised if we see quite a bit of line shifting during the game as Coach attempts to brings something a “a little different to add more to the game.”
Caps Project Lines
Ovechkin Backstrom Beagle
Burakovsky Kuznetsov Oshie
Chimera Johansson Williams
Winnet Richards Wilson
Defensemen
Alzner Niskanen
Orpik Orlov
Schmidt Chorney
Goaltender
Most likely Braden Holtby backed up by Philipp Grubauer.
And now for the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Canes, as we know, beat the Caps this season. It is worth mentioning given that they are in an elite club.
Projected Lines:
Nordstrom J. Staal Lindholm
Skinner Rask DiGiuseppe
Gerbe Nash Terry
Malone McClement Sutter
Defenseman
Slavin Hamsey
Hanifin Pesce
Jordan Murphy
Goaltender
Eddie Lack expected in the net backed up by Cam Ward
